Member-only story
This True Whole Wheat Changed How I Bake
Now it’s all I use for making bread
This is the companion piece to These California Grain Geeks Want to Boost Your Immune System With True Whole Wheat.
Bob Klein, the founder of Community Grains, changed just about everything about the way I think about and make bread.
It started when he visited me in New York in 2014 and we chatted about the importance of real whole grains. I knew much of what he pointed out, but Bob’s commitment to true whole wheat made an impression on me.
I’d been making bread my whole adult life, always trying to figure out something more honest and traditional in my mind — something great made with 100 percent true whole wheat. I’d had some successes, but not in the sense that it became routine or regular.
Then I moved to Berkeley in early 2015, where I thought I’d find what I was looking for at one of the neighborhood bakeries. I was disappointed at first: Most of the great bakers were barely using whole wheat. Most consumers, as so many bakers have discovered, seem to want white flour. I knew that great whole grain bread was achievable, but I didn’t see anyone doing it.
